For a few moments England toyed with the idea of making it a more difficult night than necessary. Scotland had scored a goal that seemed incongruous to the rest of their performance and, briefly, a fiercely partisan crowd sensed an improbable comeback. England’s response came in the form of the brilliantly choreographed move that concluded with Wayne Rooney’s second goal and the kind of outstanding football that was beyond their opponents.

England certainly made a mockery of the claim that they might somehow be intimidated by the Glasgow din. Celtic Park was a loud, seething pit of bias. It was tribal, almost relentless and, in the case of the official England band, there was a degree of ignominy, too, for repeatedly playing a tune for which the words go “Fuck the IRA”, something that could lead to a full breakdown of their relationship with the FA.

Yet Hodgson’s men played with wonderful control. Their young full-backs, Luke Shaw and Nathaniel Clyne, epitomised their composure and Fraser Forster had to make only one noteworthy save before Andy Robertson’s goal, seven minutes from the end of time, temporarily threatened a winning position. The response, culminating in Rooney finishing off a slick exchange of incisive, pass-them-to-death football, quickly put Scotland back in their place.

Rooney’s jubilation manifested itself in the leaping somersault that we first saw from him when he was bludgeoning defences at Euro 2004. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had opened the scoring in the 32nd minute and Rooney’s second-half double took him to 46 goals for his country, within three of Bobby Charlton’s record and two short of Gary Lineker.

In the Hodgson era Rooney has 18 goals in 28 appearances and his contribution here played a huge part in making Scotland look precisely what they are: a team with seven men from the Championship in the starting line-up and another seven on the bench.

Scotland had passionate backing but here was the evidence that too much can be made of a crowd’s noise. England’s starting XI included eight players from Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City and the bottom line is that footballers at that level do not tend to be intimidated by a background racket. “Real men,” Hodgson called them. They looked totally unfazed by the atmosphereand from England’s perspective it was probably a touch of complacency more than anything that was attached to the moment when Robertson scored with virtually Scotland’s only clear chance.

England supporters sing anti-IRA songs during the first half of England’s match against Scotland

The night occasionally had an edge and, while Danny Welbeck versus Shaun Maloney might not be Bryan Robson against Graeme Souness, their early tussles would not have looked out of place in some of the old encounters.

Charlie Mulgrew could easily have been shown two yellow cards by a stricter referee and amid all the usual Anglo-Scottish pleasantries, the two sets of fans put an awful lot of effort into trying to drown out one another’s national anthems. Yet England looked so calm on the ball whereas it was a strangely passive performance from Gordon Strachan’s team.

What his team lacked in refinement they might have been expected to make up in terms of chasing down the ball and refusing to give their opponents time in possession. Instead Strachan was left to congratulate England for their intensity and the speed at which they tried to get the ball back whenever they lost it. “That spooked our players,” the Scotland manager said. “I’ve got to say that was probably the best performance against us for a long time.”

England had started in a 4-3-3 formation that had Welbeck and Oxlade-Chamberlain coming in from the wings, with James Milner and Stewart Downing operating alongside Jack Wilshere in more deep-lying positions.

Welbeck’s long stride and desire to chase down defenders was a prominent feature. Wilshere played with great authority and, despite a starting position just in front of defence, had the licence to roam forward, as demonstrated by the classy midfield run and cross for Oxlade-Chamberlain to open the scoring with a glancing header.

It was strange to see Scotland offering so little resistance and Strachan was blunt in his assessment. “We let ourselves down,” he said.

At one stage, shortly after Rooney had made it 2-0, their goalkeeper, David Marshall, pumped a long kick forward and one of England’s half-time substitutes, Phil Jagielka, had time to control it on his chest and knee before finding a team-mate without a single challenge coming in. Shortly afterwards Grant Hanley went to play a simple pass to Robertson on the left of defence and put the ball out for a throw-in. England did not quite manage to silence the crowd but they had rattled their team and any threat of a second-half onslaught was effectively removed when Rooney scored his first with an instinctive, twisting header after Shaw’s shot, from a James Milner free-kick, had come back off Robertson.

Scotland’s goal came via a low finish from Robertson after an exchange of passes with one of the substitutes, Johnny Russell, but what followed reiterated England’s superiority. A lesser team might have suddenly become agitated. Instead Hodgson’s men treated the setback like a collective affront and a stylish move led to Rooney turning in Adam Lallana’s cutback to give the scoreline a more realistic appearance.

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The Football Association are to consider breaking off their relationship with the England supporters’ band after an evening which saw Wayne Rooney move within three of the national side’s goalscoring record was marred by anti-IRA chants from the visiting fans